


carry you back home (the shine and shake remix)

by metonymy



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Limbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 17:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4231278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonymy/pseuds/metonymy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur falls into Limbo. Ariadne will always go after him, no matter how long it takes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	carry you back home (the shine and shake remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [subjunctive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/subjunctive/gifts).
  * Inspired by [the ocean's evening dust](https://archiveofourown.org/works/228015) by [subjunctive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/subjunctive/pseuds/subjunctive). 
  * In response to a prompt by [subjunctive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/subjunctive/pseuds/subjunctive) in the [remixmadness2015](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2015) collection. 



Twenty-nine hours.

That's how long Arthur is under, longer than anyone should go dreaming at a time. But they don't know what to do when he doesn't wake up, the team looking at each other in their workspace and then at Ariadne. Because somehow she's become the second in command when Arthur is out of the picture. Their partnership has given her the aura of authority. Or maybe that's just been growing in her all along.

"I'm going after him," she says, and nobody dares to contradict her. She looks at Arthur as she lies down, as the chemist pushes the plunger down, and she thinks: _I'm going to find you._

It takes longer than she wants to find him, to get through the layers above Limbo. But she's done this before. She's been there and back and she's still young enough and foolhardy enough to think she can do it again. She's not going to let him lose himself down there.

When she falls asleep and wakes up gasping and choking in the waves, she can almost feel him before she sees him. She worries for a moment that she's dreamed him up - but he's aged as if he's been here for decades, stooped and gray, and she knows it must be him.

"Are you okay?" he asks, and if she wasn't breathing through a salt-rasped throat she might laugh. She's fine. Is he?

"Arthur?"

"It's me." And it's the sound of his voice that makes her start to hope. It's the feel of his hand on her shoulder that convinces her. He's changing before her eyes, shedding the years. She sees the man she loves looking back at her and she knows by the shine in his eyes and the way his shoulders square and the hint of a smile that he's going to be all right.

Ariadne touches his face and she thinks of the first time they kissed and she promises herself that she's going to kiss him again. Just as soon as they're awake.

"Are you ready to leave?" she asks. But she already knows the answer.


End file.
